Natural food? Or not?

Patrick Langston, Postmedia News08.18.2011

To dietitian Jacqueline Tetreault, natural means minimally processed. Her advice? Buy less of what's in packages and shop around the edges of the grocery store where the fresh produce, meat, dairy and whole grain breads are.

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Small wonder food manufacturers and retailers love to use the terms, leaving our imaginations to conjure images of beef cattle gambolling in open fields and cherry-cheeked grandmothers tucking loaves of bread into wood-fired ovens.

But when it comes to what we put in our stomachs, does "natural" mean anything?

That definition accords with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s regulation governing use of the term: "Foods or ingredients of foods submitted to processes that have significantly altered their original physical, chemical or biological state should not be described as ’natural.’"

In Guide to Food Labelling and Advertising, the CFIA lists a mother lode of processes — from grating and grinding to bleaching (with chemical addition) — that eliminate a product from being termed natural.

Adding vitamins, artificial flavouring and other items to a product or to its individual ingredients also means the food can’t be called natural, says the agency.

However, it also cautions that nature, natural, Mother Nature and Nature’s Way are terms "often misused on labels and in advertisements. Advertisements should not convey the impression that ’nature’ has, by some miraculous process, made some foods nutritionally superior to others or has engineered some foods specially to take care of human needs."

When it comes to nutrition and health, Tetreault says, "I don’t see any real difference between natural foods and other food. There’s food that says it uses natural ingredients, but if it uses natural cane sugar instead of refined sugar, it doesn’t make any difference because they’re both not good for you."

And if you think that eggs from "naturally raised" chickens are any more nutritious than those from birds housed in factory-like barns, think again: a 2007 study by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Marketplace found minimal nutritional differences between free-range and other types of eggs.

But whereas the former is a vague term that mostly means the absence of certain processes or additives, in Canada organic is a federally regulated label requiring certification of products.

Conflation means that natural foods sometimes enjoy the "halo effect" of organic products, says Mansfield. We assume that because organic products are free of pesticide and herbicide residues and therefore better for us, so are natural foods.

In fact, there’s no hard evidence that the minimal residues on non-organic products are harmful or that organically produced food is any more nutritious.

There is also no guarantee that a natural product is free of, or even low in, those two ingredients manufacturers love to add: sugar and sodium. Sugar is a culprit in the surge of obesity in North America, while excess salt can cause high blood pressure and increase the risk of strokes.

The CFIA allows the addition of salt and certain other ingredients without altering the product’s claim to be natural. However, the list of ingredients must mention them.

"(Natural) is one of those grey areas" when it comes to describing foods, says Michael Kaplan, co-owner of Ottawa’s Rainbow Natural Foods. "There’s no real definition of it. We try to avoid (selling) refined foods, anything with artificial flavour, colours. We lean toward organic food."

Although he has no hard and fast definition of natural, Kaplan says what his store sells has to "meet our standards."

Whether or not you go to the trouble and extra expense of tracking down natural foods, do look for products that meet the recommendations of Canada's Food Guide. Whole grains, for example, provide fibre, are typically low in fat, and may help reduce the risk of heart disease.

"There’s a lot of food you can buy at big grocery stores that’s fine," says Tetreault, who does much of her shopping in mainstream food stores. "Stick to the perimeters of the store — that’s where the dairy and produce, fresh meat, whole grain breads are. Buy less of what’s in packages."

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